Page 135 of Broken Saint

Fuck. How was that only a few days ago?

I feel like an entirely different person.

“You’ve changed that though, Colt. Yes, I’ll always be up in my own head about my body and how I look. I’m pretty sure that is unavoidable at this point. But the way you look at me. The way you touch me.” I shake my head, unable to find the right words to convey just how he makes me feel.

His touch is magic, and his words light me up inside in a way I haven’t felt in years.

“I love you,” he blurts.

I swear my heart stops right then and there as his eyes widen and his chest expands with a quick, deep breath.

“I don’t want to go back to Texas,” I confess in response.

35

COLTON

Istare at her, my heart like a runaway train in my chest.

Disbelief floods my veins at what I just confessed.

But as freaked out as I am that I said the words, I don’t regret them.

How can I when they’re true?

What’s really got me dumbstruck is her own confession.

“I don’t want to go back to Texas.”

Neither of us says anything as the scent of our dinner mixes with the pretentious air freshener the realtor gave me as a moving-in gift not so long ago.

The silence is deafening.

I have so many things I want to say.

So many things I need to say.

But despite that, I can’t find any words.

Ella lifts a trembling hand and tucks a lock of her blonde hair behind her ear, and the second she rips her eyes from mine, I speak without instruction from my brain.

That’s how powerful our connection is. Without it, I’m not in control.

Instinct kicks in. And right now, that instinct will do anything it can not to lose her.

“You don’t want to go back to Texas?” I echo like an idiot.

She sucks in a breath before ducking her chin.

“Does that mean…you…you want to stay here?”

Fuck.

Just saying the words affects me in a way I never could have imagined.

She looks up, gazing at me from under her lashes, making my heart somersault in my chest.

“Yes.”